The Internet is becoming a primary method for distributing media content (e.g., video and audio or just audio or just video) and other information to end users. It is currently possible to download music, video, games and other media information to computers, cell phones, and virtually any network capable device. The percentage of people accessing the Internet for media content is growing rapidly. The quality of the viewer experience is a key barrier to the growth of video viewing on-line. Consumer expectations for online video are set by their television and movie viewing experiences.
Audience numbers for streaming video on the web are rapidly growing, and there are a growing interest and demand for viewing video on the Internet. Streaming of data files or “streaming media” refers to technology that delivers sequential media content at a rate sufficient to present the media to a user at the originally anticipated playback speed without significant interruption. Unlike downloaded data of a media file, streamed data may be stored in memory until the data is played back and then subsequently deleted after a specified amount of time has passed.
The process for preparing media content for adaptive streaming typically involves taking a source file, such as a movie, or a source feed, such as a broadcast signal, and splitting it into temporal chunks or slices of media (e.g., video and audio), and encoding each slice of the media at different quality levels. Typically the different quality levels are achieved by encoding the media content at different bit rates according to encoding profiles. During playback, and as network conditions fluctuate, a consuming application selects a slice at one of the different quality levels that is best suited for the present network throughput, and the consuming applications adjusts the quality up or down as available bandwidth increases or decreases by selecting subsequent slices at the appropriate quality levels.
Streaming media content over the Internet has some challenges, as compared to regular broadcasts over the air, satellite or cable. Although the adaptive streaming approach provides many advantages, one major disadvantage is inserting advertisements. Conventionally, in the case of live broadcast television, the broadcaster is in complete control of timing of the insertion and playback of advertisements. For example, if a 30-second advertisement is to be inserted, the advertisement is selected and scheduled beforehand, and the advertisement starts and ends immediately at the scheduled time. This is possible because the broadcaster is in complete control of all the equipment and media content (regular programming plus advertisements) involved. In addition, all viewers see or hear the same advertisement at the same time. The viewers are human beings who watch or listen to the media content using a television or radio. When the time to insert an advertisement arrives, the broadcaster inserts an advertisement into the output signal. The advertisement includes content which was previously positioned in the video equipment, which is capable of delivering the content into the output signal at the precise instant that it is called for, with very high reliability. In effect, all viewers see the same advertising at the same point in the media content, such as that of a live event or a scheduled programming.
As for Internet-based media content, one conventional approach inserts advertising into the video stream at some point no later than the media server or the equivalent, meaning the advertisements are encoded as an integral part of the media content. Like conventional broadcasting, using this conventional approach, all viewers see the same advertising at the same point in the media content, such as that of a live event, and a media player, operating on a networked device, is not involved in selecting the advertisements. The media player is a piece of software that plays the media content (e.g., displays video and plays audio), and may be a standalone software application, a web browser plug-in, a combination of browser plug-in and supporting web page logic, or the like.
In the case of managing advertisements for on-demand, Internet-based media content, sometimes referred to as video-on-demand (VOD), the timing for advertisement insertion may be very flexible. For example, the VOD content may be a previously-recorded broadcast, as opposed to media content from a “live” broadcast. In this context, “live” means that the media content is anchored to a particular point in time for the purpose of playing the media content. That is, the beginning of the piece of content is scheduled to be played by a media player at a particular point in time. In some cases, the media content of the live event is played out at the same time that the content is being encoded, and the anchor point is the time that the encoding of the event began. In other cases, the media content of a live event may be pre-encoded, but scheduled to play out at a particular point in time. In either case, the playback of the content is required to occupy approximately the same amount of time as the original live event, in order to keep the playback of the media content synchronized with the schedule. For live playback, the duration of advertisement breaks during playback should approximate the duration of the advertisement breaks as they were encoded. Live playback (sometimes referred to as live playout) differs from VOD playback in that, with VOD content, there is no anchor point in real time. A piece of VOD content begins playing when a viewer requests the VOD content. There is no requirement that the duration of advertisement breaks be the same as the duration of the original advertisement breaks, during the playback of the VOD content. In fact, it is common for the duration of the advertisement breaks to be quite different in the VOD content than from the original broadcast (e.g., for television). For example, an original television broadcast may be shown at a particular point in time, and subsequently, the publisher makes the television broadcast available as VOD content, but without the original advertisements in the original television broadcast. Since the VOD content is not anchored to a particular schedule, the advertisements in the VOD content do not have to match the duration of the original advertisements.
For VOD advertisement insertion, advertisement breaks are typically marked at particular points in the video content, although their locations might also be computed based on the amount of time the viewer has been viewing or by some other means. Advertisement breaks are not required to occupy any particular duration of time. In particular, the advertisements in the VOD content do not have to match the original advertisement breaks in the program content. In fact, the number and duration of advertisements played during a particular advertisement break in the VOD content may vary from viewer to viewer.
For VOD advertisement insertion, when playback reaches an advertisement break, playback of the program content is suspended while the advertisements are played. If there are brief pauses as advertisements are fetched, or even during the playback of an advertisement, the viewer's experience during the advertisement break may be affected, but this has no bearing on the viewer's experience after the program content resumes. For example, in a VOD scenario, there is no concept of “lag behind live,” because the event is pre-recorded and is available in its entirety before playback begins. The term “lag behind live,” as used herein, refers to the difference between when a particular piece of content is encoded for Internet distribution and when a particular viewer views the piece of content on the media player. The “lag behind live” can vary between viewers and can vary over time for a single viewer. For a particular live event, delivered by a particular technology, there is a minimum lag behind live due to the time to record, or otherwise capture the live event and to make the recorded content available for Internet distribution, for example.
The concept of “lag behind live” only applies to live events, not to pre-recorded media content, unless the pre-recorded media content is scheduled to be played back at a particular point in time. In effect, for VOD content, there is no live point to which the viewer should be restored after an advertisement break. Advertisement breaks for VOD content can be of any duration without affecting the viewer's experience of the regular program content.
Since advertising is inserted into the live video stream of a live event before the media server in one conventional system, all viewers seeing the live event see the same advertisement at the same time. The publisher cannot control how many viewers see the advertisements. In general, there is no good way to take advantage of knowing how many viewers see the advertisements. In particular, it is difficult or impossible to be paid a higher price if a higher-than-expected number of viewers see the advertisements. It is difficult or impossible to target advertising to particular demographics or geographic areas without setting up a one or more media servers for each demographic or geographic area and ensure that each viewer connects to the appropriate media server.